Purple Sutures, Guava Cheese and Singing to Caiman

So I was on time to get this next post up a week since the last one. I started writing it around Wed/Thurs and then was like naah too soon. Now so much shiz has happened in the last few days it's now actually Tues! So here is technically last weeks blog and then there'll be another.

This week has been full of some madness, mayhem and cool shiz. So you know, the norm for out here. It will be a blog update of a few short stories as it were, so it jumps from story to story. Better keep up.

We had the river rise from this

The stairs were just behind me when I took the photo.

To this

Overnight.

Pretty freaking crazy. It must've been absolutely pouring rain down south in the Kanaku Mtns and then it all flowed here on its way out to sea.

This meant we had no where to be with Buddy at the first landing since there was no sandbank, which forced us to go feed him at the lagoon. Only problem was, since the water level had risen, the caiman had moved from the river, through the mangrove like trees and into the lagoon. Three of them, one particularly large one that does not respect Buddys territory, nor does he care about rocks and such being thrown at him. Problematic. So for a few days Buddys trips down at the river were rather short, especially when one morning he actually swam straight into 2 of the caiman and had a tussle. He came back fine, one little scratch and a little shaken up. Buddys otter 'friend' returned, and this time within about 10m of Buddy! Buddy however was once again completely oblivious because he was busy eating a fish. For now though it seems like this otter isn't interested in giving Buddy a beating otherwise he would've done it by now. He may just be looking for a companion.
Needless to say we didn't take the kids down for 2 days because the caiman were right there.

So we had a number of rather stressful mornings and afternoons but the water has dropped again somewhat which means the caiman seem to be less interested in hanging out in the lagoon and we can again access the sandbank at the first landing.

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We have been having overcast, humid and muggy weather for the last few days with patches of rain. Patches of rain here seems to be it goes from overcast to near torrential downpour in 2minutes. Rains furiously until you are soaked to the skin, then slows down, stops, and the sun comes out . . .

Stefi and I were down at the lagoon yesterday when such a downpour occured. Funzies.

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I've been eating lot's of new foods local to Guyana, most of which are pretty tastey. One is a fruit - a tiny little yellow apple that tastes like you are eating a thin slice of apple with a thick slice of strong blue vein cheese! Pretty cool, but can only do one or two at a time!

It is called a........Cheese Apple....not really. It does have a proper name, but I currently can't remember it...

There was a dessert two nights ago that was like a really dense cheesecake. It was made from Guava, so was a little grainy in texture wise and very very sweet. This is roughly how the following conversation went between myself and the others at the table - Diane, Pat, Salvador, Andrea and Pete.
I asked what it was made from and what it was called.
The response was Guava Cheese.
Why?
Because it's texture/density is like cheese. There is already the Guava fruit and Guava jam and this is something different again.
But it doesn't taste at all like cheese . . .
So what would you call it?
...Guava Cake...
-> laughter all round.
Well I mean really that seems pretty sensible to me haha. Ah well crazy guyanese. Pete said there is no way any Australian would call this cheese. Exactly.

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Right now I'm munching on a piece of bread and chunks of cheese I begged from Auntie Doris and Girly in the kitchen :) my heroes. I was starving.

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So Ana and I have been helping Stefi in her veterinary pursuits, which is excellent fun. We started off with the aim of getting blood from all the cats and dogs to test for rabies and distemper. They are going to be vaccinated anyway but it is important to know whether it is here or not.

Waterton and Soxy were easy as cake to get blood from, we just walked up to them, rolled them over and took blood whilst giving lots of praise and pats. They didn't even make a sound. Good boys! Old Boy was also very good, Alvin just called him outside, held him and we took it. However we don't have a chance to take it from the other 3 dogs without their owners holding them. We can't get near them - they know something is up, also even if we did manage to get a hold of one, there is too much of a risk that we would get bitten. A risk we don't need to take.


All the blood taking equipment - the razor, which incidentally was completely useless for use with animal fur haha; the needles from the syringes to take the blood (out of picture there is a special vial for collecting blood that contains a vacuum, so when it's pierced by the needle the vacuum sucks the blood into the vial - cool huh cousins?!); glass slides for making blood smears; and water for the razor (it's just water on the table too!).


Here is a fresh blood sample - Old Boys if I remember correctly and blood slides from Old Boy and Waterton.

One morning late last week we woke up to find that Waterton had come back from a romp on the savannah with a huge gash on the his left 'shin'.

So Stefi got to get her vet on for the first time really since arriving (aside from stitching a boys head when he fell of a horse). We are lucky Waterton is such a sweet sweet dog, he let us hold him and Stefi stitched him up with the aid of a local anesthetic. However the next day we found he had chewed out all but 1 of his stitches. We went to catch him and put more in but due to some shiz going down that didn't happen. In the end he now has no stitches but the cut is still clean and healthy looking so it should heal a.ok.

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On one of the 4 nights Ana, Stefi and I were sleeping in hammocks and a tent because we were full of guests Stefi had the bright idea that she and I should go down and bathe at the river that night. So i warily agreed to said idea and off we went at I dunno about 640pm. We had 3/4 of a moon to light up the sandbank so could see pretty well and our torches hadn't spotted any nearby caiman eyes. I was a tad nervous at this point - it was really going against the grain bathing in a river, at night, that is full of caiman, especially after growing up in Australia where if you did that with Salties you wouldn't be there to finish washing your hair. We sang Piano Man (we have all been learning the lyrics religiously to keep ourselves amused) to keep back the nerves and the caiman. In the end it was a lot of fun but a little nerve wracking!

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On a very cool note Buddy caught a massive stingray the other morning! I don't know what species but it was about 46cm in diameter. We saw him thrashing about in the shallows and I guessed it was a stingray because he was struggling too much for it to be a fish. Boy was he chuffed about it, he came over dragging it making very excited, happy noises and wriggling his whole body and tail.


He then spent at least the next hour and a half gorging himself stupid on the thing. Then when he was full he'd go off for a little bit and then come back and have another nibble - he did this several times. He also proceeded to present us with the half eaten stingray, probably to share with us

Thankyou Buddy that is very sweet but um no thanks.

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Peace and happy travels to all :)

Next post will be about Stefi the Italian Bush Vet with Ana and I her technicians, neutering animals left, right and centre!

Another Day, Another Bite

Another update and a few more pics of the otter clan and finally an introduction for Bandit.

This is a large fish Buddy caught and promptly consumed the day before yesterday.

Buddy alternates between being our golden boy and a teenager with selective hearing. I have noticed since I've arrived - all of 3 weeks, that he is getting progressively harder and harder to bring up most days. Then other days we call him and he comes straight up, right at our heels, no issues what so ever... At his age it is getting towards the time he would be booted out of the family and have to make it out on his own. Unfortunately since Buddy is blind, if he were to decide to head out he probably wouldn't last a night. There has been some discussion as to the possibility of him going to a zoo - Jacksonville Zoo in the states has been mentioned. We'll have to wait and see...

This is what happens to a full bottle of mozipel (we morned its passing) gets into Buddys jaws...He took it into the water before we could grab it and we weren't about to grab it from his mouth because that is asking for a bite. Giant Otters are very defensive over their food. Even when it's not food. He chewed it thoroughly, enough to puncture it and send mozipel shooting everywhere. Needless to say he didn't like that one iota and sneezed repeatedly - we laughed and laughed at him, the sucker.

Uh..sleeping...angel..? He is no longer called a delinquent. He is no longer called a terrorist. He is now
Devil Child.


Philip for the most part is ok...it's the other parts that are the problem. He is getting worse and worse after the food is gone now. Instead of screaming and wandering over to probably eventually bite your toe/s he now charges like a bat out of hell screaming at the top of his lungs. He will either bite feet/toes or jump up on your legs (leaving scratches like mine) to try and reach the empty container and invariably turns and bites the inside of your thigh, which, is a rather tender place to be bitten. He has drawn blood or left a bruise 4 times. Inside of forearm, inside of thigh, index finger and big toe (that one was today).

I no longer try and wack him on the nose - that is asking to get a finger bitten...like he did mine. I am now getting quite practiced at standing my ground (even though he's only all of 6.25kg or so, he has a strong jaw with a mouth full of wild giant otter carnivore slicing, crunching, puncturing teeth), sidestepping his charge at the last second and giving him a good shove. This sends him sliding across the ground for a distance and seems to get the message across.

Two days ago he threw a massive tantrum down at the river and charged me fullball so I did the sidestep-shove, he immediately turned and charged again, so I repeated the sidestep-shove but harder this time, sending him sliding a metre or so. He looked up at me in alarm and barked (something they do when they are unsure of something (often something/one new) and backed off. That'll teach him.
Eventually.
Hopefully.
However that said he is still sneaky about some of his bites, and despite my mad skillz he can still catch me unawares P:

This photo of Bel was taken during their 1130 lagoon feeding. For some reason she often likes to come and eat near or on my feet :).

She is as sweet as ever. Salvador who hasn't seen her for nearly two weeks says she has grown. Stefi and I think she has despite the weekly weighing showing little to no difference. She is just growing at Bel pace...leetle bit by leetle bit.

Now comes the biggest culprit for biting me this week. Bandit the Crab-Eating Raccoon.

This was taken tonight when he came down from his tree to say hello. Since he doesnt stay still for very long I couldnt get a good photo of him checking me out and saying hello tonight. Will try again soon. As you can see is a very handsome, very muscley animal.

He used up my biting quota for possibly my entire stay in the space of 5-10minutes I guess.
Long story short he was pissy about being locked back in his night den for part of the morning. So he took it out on Diane and I when we let him out again at about 930am. When a 2yr old fully grown raccoon that is built like a cat crossed with a minibear on steroids with canines roughly 1.5cm long is pissed off at you, shit is hitting the fan, if you'll excuse the expression. I drew his attention off Diane because the last thing I wanted is for her to be seriously bitten, as it is she is bitten too much. So I walked the 20m to his tree which he sleeps in during the day with him dragging along - he had his hands wrapped around one of my ankles.

When I stood still at the base of the tree he then proceeded to alternate between jumping repeatedly up at my arms trying to bite them and biting and literally chewing on my ankles. So I stood with my arms crossed behind my back out of his reach. I stood stock still looking straight ahead not reacting to him at all to see whether he would get bored of it if he was paid no attention. Unfortunately that did not work. At all. He gradually bit my ankles and my damn ankle bone harder and harder, eventually he bit too far, I'd had enough and gave him a kickshove. It was beautiful technique - leg curled back, foot stretched out, clean follow through. Again it did nothing to dissuade him from his warpath.

During this time he had transferred to Diane a few times when she called him but I would quickly call him back so he wouldn't have the chance to bite her badly. Finally I'd just had enough of his shenanigans and decided what the hell just grab the little turd up. So I reached down, darted past his teeth and grabbed him hard by the scruff of the neck and picked him up. With Bandit his neck is practically pure muscle and loose skin so if you don't take a firm grip chances are he is going to swivel around and bite your wrist. Needless to say he went still very quickly, but the next thought was "now what?...the tree...dump him on the tree and maybe he'll get the message" so that's what I did, I half threw him at the tree.
Back he came. I picked him up again and by this time Diane had appeared with some of the otters left over fish. We showed it to him, put it on the ground and then I dumped him (rather unceremoniously) on said fish. Nope. Not interested. I held him by the scruff in one hand and offered him fish with the other but nope he really was on the warpath now.

I have no idea how long we were at it for but Kenneth (one of the guys here who takes people on guided walks and boat trips etc) must've heard the commotion - Diane was telling Bandit off rather loudly and I was threatening to pick him up and really throw him, like throw him up the tree - and came to the rescue. During the last moments of confrontation Bandit leapt up and grabbed a hold of my left hand, then as he fell back down one of his canines proceeded to slice open the meat of my thumb on the palm side (thankfully it was much shallower than it could have been). Needless to say I swore and threatened Bandit that hed soon be losing a limb. Bandit then realised that Kenneth meant business and bolted, after a few laps of the trees and otter house we ended up putting him in purgatory in his enclosure with only 2 bits of fish for Pat to come and let him out later.


After it was cleaned and treated with good old reliable Betadine.

So in the end not so long story short haha but hey for all it was a crazy experience it was also freaking awesome haha. At the end of it my hands were shaking from the huge and prolonged adrenalin rush of tussling with him. It also showed me that if I ever need to deal with Bandit again I have absolutely no qualms about grabbing him up by the scruff and doing what needs to be done, which for me is satisfying to know.

Since much of this post has been about biting which involves teeth here is a photo I took down at the river after Buddy had fed on most of this piranha but left the teeth behind. The teeth are shaped like some sharks...cool huh

Creatures of all shapes, sizes and personalities

Im not sure whether I have mentioned it already or not but aside from the otters and raccoon there are also 6 dogs and 3 cats.


Waterton sleeping at my feet under the desk in the office as I type this :). I think because there are so many guests in all of the rooms this is the calmest, quietest place he could find.

The dogs being Old Boy, Horsey and Blackie (all 3 dogs are black, Horsey has white socks), Soxy and Patricks Dog (no one knows its name) (both of which are a sandy colour) and then Waterton who is a white/golden colour and Pats dog. He is really the only one we have interaction with. He enjoys sleeping in my shower during the day where its nice and cool, dark and quiet. A more happy go lucky dog I have never met.

The cats include Garfield, an old ginger tom that no one knows exactly how old he is. He is the godfather of cats and a face that could tell many tales (resisted the pun of 'tails') with ears curled from mange in years past and fur missing on his cheeks. I think he is also missing a canine...he is a cool old fella none the less.



Then there is Sir Walter Raleigh (there are falls named after this dude in southeast guyana) who is actually owned by Anas boss Graham. He is a very very handsome ginger cat that now that he is a big boy annoys and tests poor old Garfield all the time. However Stefi and I have a solution to that *devils grin*...we like to call it "snip snip" haha. But seriously I cant wait to help her neuter Sir Walter, Soxy and Blackie :D it is gonna be the coolest thing ever!


Last but not least there is FancyFoot, so named because he was born with only two toes on each of his back paws. He walks a little odd but when he runs (like from us when we came at him with the dewormer) he runs juuust fine. He is black with the typical white bib and feet, a sweet but twitchy cat.

In the above pic you see FancyFoot hiding from us on top of the linen closet. We had the dewormer syringe...even tempting with fish didnt make him budge.

In terms of more wildlife yesterday there was a big female Iguana sunning herself near the trust house. So naturally we pulled out the cameras and took a few pictures from a distance. Then we snuck closer, and closer...and closer until we were less than a metre away. Gerry couldn't believe it because usually as soon as they see a person they make a dashfert (for those who don't know my familys 'language' haha dashfert = dash for it). Gerry reckoned she was gravid with eggs (are Iguanas gravid or only snakes?) but it was still odd for her not to run. Either way we all scored some sweet pictures. She did not like Ana however, so Ana did an Iguana pushup territory display - hilarious!


Next update, playing rugby with an otter and practicing shotput with a raccoon.

River Legs

Well the first half of the week was very busy indeed. First let me explain that all the cabin beds combined house 12 people, then including the trust house it can be 14. Last weekend there were close enough to 14 guests.
This means that Stefi, Ana and I get rousted from our rooms and moved elsewhere. This time I moved to the spare bed in Pats room and the other two got to sleep in Stefis tent. The dinner table was so packed that we 3 got our own kids table haha! We thought it was rather amusing and fun.
So for a number of days we were outnumbered and surrounded by brits. We had a Sir (knight) and his Lady stay with us, they were understated and lovely people cool hobbies like beekeeping and horses - breeding and competition - jumping and dressage.

On a fun note I got to hone my sweet leatherman skillz. One of the brits had locked themselves out of their backpack with a combination lock - apparently it wasnt working. Two crunches with the Leatherman Skeletools hard wire cutters later and 5mm steel snaps :D satisfying!



I was able to go on my first early morning savannah drive to look for Giant Anteaters. The only reason we got to see one that day was because Marvin - who works at Karanambus Outstation where they keep their cattle - went out on horseback with his son at like 430am to find one. The way it was hidden, sleeping in long brown grass, no one else wouldve been able to find it unless it was stepped on. After the poor bugger got woken up, one of the brits - an avid amateur photographer - proceeded to go for an early morning jog trying to keep up with the running anteater...quite an amusing sight needless to say. Especially since the savannah landscape deceptive, under the green smooth looking tussock grass is rough and uneven ground.
The best photo I got was when it was running towards me back out to the open away from all us damn tourists!



This one has the adults distinct markings but they get much larger, it only came up to my knee or so I think.
Very cool and exciting morning. I aim to see more and take more cool photos in the future.

This week I also got to go on a couple of river trips, one in the morning and two in the evening. Aside from the amazing variety of birds and other cool animals Ill talk about seeing, being on the river itself for a few hours at a time is just amazing. I love it. After spending at least 4hrs on the river when I come back on land and sit down I feel like Im still rocking. River Legs...sort of like Sea Legs :P.


I love riding in these shallow aluminium boats, being so close to the water, I often trail a foot or hand in the water as we cruise along. Something of course you could never do in the croc waters back home so Im making the most of it!


Speaking of crocs and the like, these are some decent size Black Caiman. Spectacled Caiman - which I have seen one of - can also be found in this area. You can tell the difference by the shape of the head and their eyes sit up on their head more prominently, as well as having small horny ridges above the eyes. I think Dwarf Caiman can also be found in these parts.
The researchers at Caiman House down river tag/mark the caimans they catch by cutting out a tail ridge so it leaves an easily visible notch, allowing they to easily identify who they have and havent caught.


Forgive the slight pixalation, I wanted to zoom in a little so it wasnt just a blob in the middle of the screen.
This, if I remember correctly is a Red-collared Black Hawk standing on the bank, and if you look closely you can see that it has caught a yellow snake - I dont know what type. One of the brits in the boat said that the snakes head was missing...cooool. His wife responded with a very concerned 'oh dear...'. hah.


Not only is this photo beautiful but it is also a regular home to some of the native monkeys of the area. I have so far seen two of the local species, the Brown Capuchin and the Black Bearded Saki. Both very cute and of course extremely agile in the tall trees. The Capuchins you will often hear cracking nuts against the tree trunk. We got to see one doing it yesterday - very cool. No pictures of the actual monkeys yet, unfortunately the zoom on my camera isnt that powerful.


Unfortunately this photo doesnt do it justice but yesterday evening inbetween rain showers a rainbow appeared several times. At the time this picture was taken, believe it or not there were 3 rainbows in the sky. One, the most faint at the top of the picture and then the most visible one is actually a double rainbow - I dont know if Ive ever seen one before! It was amazing.


Just for fun a picture of a far insuperior product when compared to our Vegemite. How I miss it...hopefully that will soon be remedied with a package from Ausland :)

Since this post is already pretty long and full of lots of photos I shall make another to update you on the otter gang, introduce you to some of the domestic pets and tell of their shenanigans.

My First 2 Weeks

Hm so hopefully the last post and then I will be caught up with myself.
My first two weeks here Jan 30th – Feb 13th

First river trip – sorry no pics it was last minute, there is space wanna go, jump in the boat kind of moment haha. I saw black caiman (only heads and tails though), a massive jabiru, all sorts of fishing birds and herons, an otter holt (pretty cool!) and the river itself. Being out on it was amazing, just cruising along in the boat so close to the water with the jungle and savannah moving by with all the sounds and smells. Love being out there.

We were dropping visitors off at a village south of us called Yupukari. A research station come lodge called Caiman House is there and each night (I think) they go out to catch, tag, weigh, monitor black caiman. The visitors get to go along and watch – I’ll definitely have to get in on some of those trips!

First time seeing Giant Otters in person and then touching, feeding and swimming with them! Obvious but pretty damn exciting.
First bites by Philip. I have been bitten about 5 times but only 3 have left marks, 1 of those drawing blood and the other 2 leaving bruises.

I also busted my pinky open when trying to sneak out of Buddys enclosure after putting him to sleep. The latch catches and then it suddenly slid out and my pinky got caught and just split open. That was on the 3rd Feb it is now the 13th and still not quite healed.



First swim with Buddy and towing him around my fingers in his maw!
Vid?

Also first time with Buddy deciding to follow a boat that was heading out fishing, which took him at least 300m away – a long way for a blind otter to swim, which then left us stranded on the bank calling for him for about 5-10minutes with practically no replies. In the end we were lucky enough one of the guys was around to grab a boat and take us to go pick him up so he could follow us home. He called so much following us on the way home that he attracted the attention of a singleton (lone otter, suspected male) who 5 minutes after we arrived back on the sandbank safely popped up about 20m away giving us quite a surprise! Buddy was completely oblivious as he was busy playing with a fish and couldn’t see him anyway. The singleton then swam off once we stood up and made some noise. Thus I saw my first Wild giant otter! He has been dubbed Buddys “Friend” because well there is the chance that they would interact happily enough but there is also the distinct possibility that the other otter if a male could take him as a threat and give him a good thrashing (at least). Ah the excitement…

He periscoped beautifully when he first appeared so we were able to see his bib. All giant otters have a white throat with individual markings – like a finger print, this is how they are individually identified. There are exceptions however, some otters have no white at all – Ana has spotted two youngsters nicknames the Twins with no white bibs amongst a family down river. There are also otters like Bel who have all white bibs with no brown markings in them, the shape of the bib is still individual though.

First time picking mangoes (a different variety from any I have ever had) directly from a tree and then immediately peeling it with my teeth and eating it :D.


This one's a keeper aye :P

There was a birthday here the other night that also happened to fall on the first day of Carnivale so Stefi cooked a massive Italian feast of pizza, pasta, bruschetta and then cake made by the kitchen staff. All of it was amazingly delicious, especially the pizza – can’t beat handmade, fresh bases with homemade sauce etc, and the icing on the cake was superb – we all know how important good icing is!



We also decided to dress up like we were at Carnivale so we made impromptu costumes, Rupununi style haha. Ana: LeafCutter Ant, Stefi: Raccoon, Diane: Queen Alien, Pat: Bat (because she loves them so much…not!), Jerry: King (it was his birthday) and I was a Red-Bellied Piranha!



Cardboard, aluminium foil and dental floss…yes dental floss!
Ana has taught me a life changing lesson that I would like to share with everyone.
>Always travel with dental floss, it is amazing, tough and can fix just about anything.<
She once sowed up a pair of pants whilst she was in the Galapagos with dental floss and they survived and did their duty very well.

My forearms, legs and feet are fast getting very, very brown. I am wearing a lot of sunscreen, so much so that only 2 weeks in Im almost out of my roll-on, I will have to ask them to get more. I think it’s the combination of two antibiotics that both make the skin sensitive to sun, that is getting me burnt even through layers of sunscreen, I always have my hat on during the day now too.

I apologise if these blog updates include hideous grammar and dodgy spelling. I can’t really be bothered to proofread, I would rather spend the time in a hammock if there is spare time!

Next update - better photos of the kids, a trip on the river and my first Giant Anteater!

The Place and Its People

So now Im sitting in the room that is the designated 'office' which is at the end of the main building. It also houses the store room (pantry), Pat and Dianes rooms, the kitchen and the open dining area.

The set up here is lovely and spacious with the small cabins spread over the open ground (which is covered in Laterite in a gravel like form) interspersed around the edges with huge old mango trees. There is an absolute copious plethora of mangoes here at the moment :D it is fantastic. There are many different types of mangoes too making it ever more fun to pick them, since I have no idea what each one will be like.

Sorry for running out like that I had to grab some mozzie spray. Here we use MOZIPEL - Extra Strength


Modeled beautifully by Stefi. Also stolen from Stefis camera :P

I stay in the Trust House (used for volunteers etc) which is the other large building, it has a room at each end and big open area in the middle.



I am lucky in that my room has a double bed (what a treat!), whereas the other room as has 2 singles. It is a pretty big room with a big desk and KRs radio (more about the crazy radio later). This room is connected to my bathroom which is fine, however the light isnt very bright so at night im usually showering in almost darkness - always an adventure.



I share the Trust House and otter duties with two chicks I already consider my friends. There is Stefi who is a vet from Italy, she has been skiing since about age 4 and used to have to ski to school...I know how freaking awesome is that Robertshawe Gang!! Stefi came here with Lucy to spend some time here as a vet and help the otters and resident dogs and cats with anything from worming to neutering the locals :D. Stefi is one of those rare people you meet who is just a beautiful person and offers her help, her ear or anything she can, anytime :).


Stefi being all vet like, she had just come back from the outstation where a sick cow was killed and so had gone to take samples. In the picture she is labelling the plastic jar with its sample contents - lung, heart, lymphnodes etc which were stored in alcohol :D.

Ana is Chilean and Equadorian but more recently has spent years living in both Hawaii and the Galapagos Islands...which is mad! I have learnt that whilst she can seem pretty cruisey and relaxed, there is a sharp, fast and wicked wit hiding that will have you in hysterics haha. Together we have been taking care of Buddy and the kids and helping...or hindering one anothers sanity along the way.


Again stolen from Stefis pics, woops. This is Ana (left) and Diane looking after the kids during their 1130am feeding down at the 2nd landing. Bel is by the log and Philip is down in the right hand corner.

Diane McTurk is the owner and internationally recognised Giant Otter Lady. Pat is a tough woman with mean sense of humour and a quick tongue who takes care of anything and everything about the place. Bandit is her charge...or she is Bandits...Either way he listens to her when she says no! Which is handy when he comes to check us out at the dinner table haha.

The local Amerindians are the staff here. They take care of the cooking, laundry, boat trips, guided walk etc. They are a beautiful, soft spoken people (the ones I have met so far) who laugh readily, get to know them and they are a cheeky bunch. In this area - the Northern Rupununi Savannah they are part of the Makushi, the south (separated by the Kanuku Mountains) are the Wapashan. Then below them at the very bottom of Guyana are the WaiWai, a smaller more secretive bunch.

The Otter House which was put up with the help of a zoo from the states and a bunch of youth volunteers in 1998 is on the edge of the buildings here and where the otters spend their time when they are not down at the river with us. The river is a few hundred metres away (in wet season I am told it is much much much closer!), so when we take Buddy down we go to the first landing which requires navigating down a steep set of widely spaced stairs - which he does with ease, I still take it slow. This puts you on a nice large sandbank parallel to the river. The kids however are still too small to walk all the way (they also aren't old enough to hold up their tails when walking so it drags and gets beaten up) so they are taken in the pet crate which we put in the wheelbarrow (carrying it is not a comfortable option) and taken to the second landing which is down a little inlet that opens out to a little lagoon. This is great for the kids as it is out of the current and away from the caiman!


I think there are plans in the air for repairs/upgrades to the otter house - very exciting.

Hammocks.
I learnt very quickly on the first day that Hammocks are an integral part of life here, a necessity even. They are one of mans best creations. I have had one lying about at home for a few years but never got around to putting it up, this however was when I was a young, naive pup who didn't know how to appreciate a good Hammock Time. Everyday we get Hammock Time after lunch before the 230pm feeding...it is swinging, relaxing golden time. The first time I spent a substantial amount of an afternoon in a hammock I felt like I was still swinging when I went to bed that night, Classic.


Notice the thong tan - coming along very nicely. Also contributed to by dirty feet...they are pretty much permanently that way haha...yes I do shower everyday thankyou very much!

Next installment - my first 2 weeks at KR.

Diving into Karanambu to meet the Otters

So my blog has quickly (Im having trouble typing what Im thinking as the Lion King song ‘I Just Cant Wait To Be King’ is playing on Anas laptop and so of course Im singing along, which usually leads me to type what Im singing P: haha) run away from me. The days just disappear into one another very quickly.

Lets see…after flying out t the ranch in a Iittle 12 seater (including pilot and copilot) I arrived on Saturday afternoon and straight away jumped right into helping feed the kids! Was pretty hectic at first. Seeing as giant otters are highly social highly vocal creatures they make a whole lotta noise….at a very high pitch (especially when wanting food…which is all the time).



First things first I guess I should introduce the otters themselves. For background stories check out Dr Lucy Spelmans blog (link is on my first post).
Buddy is just over 18mths old and in July Karanambu (KR) will have had him for two years. He is about 5ft and we guesstimate maybe 25-30kg but we aren’t sure because weighing at this age and size is an undertaking we are not so sure about. After a suspicious ‘accident’ he is now either almost totally blind or completely so, we think completely so but cannot be 100% certain. He seems to manage very well without his sight, his sense of smell, hearing and touch is amazing. Giant Otters faces are covered in whiskers which help him sense a lot. He is still able to catch fish when we take him down to the river. Buddy is very well behaved (most of the time) and is great to play with in the water. You can offer him/he will find and ‘take’ your index finger in his mouth behind his canines, in front of the molars in the space there which allows you to drag him (without getting bitten)around, up, down and all through the water which he seems to love – it is also an excessively cool experience for me! Walking him to and from the river he often follows right at my or whoever is leading heels, his nose is glued to them as such, helps him not bump into stuff I guess.
Currently Buddy gets fed twice a day: 930am & 330pm, both times he gets taken down to the river with two people for a few hours, usually about 2 to 2.5hrs.


(close up coming soon, just wanted to give an idea of his size)

Next come to two ‘kids’.
Bel is one of the otters seen in the picture of my first post, there she is with her brother. Unfortunately he died around Christmas time from what they think was pneumonia after breathing in milk. Such a shame but it happens. Bel is a tiny little otter that is growing but very slowly and who has an almost constant potbelly from all the fish she gorges on! When it comes to feeding time she is so sweet and polite, when she has finished a piece of fish she just looks at you waiting, and then if you start taking too long she looks at you, then the water (we feed them in the water in the hopes of teaching them that food/fish comes from water…) then back at you with her big bulging eyes. If I remember correctly she is about 2mths old at the moment.


Please forgive the slightly unattractive picture of Bel haha but I dont actually have many pictures of the kids yet. Even though I see them generally 3-4 times a day, the visits are hectic and busy!

Philip on the other hand is a delinquent. He arrived between Christmas and new years and although he is only perhaps half a month older than Bel he is much bigger…and louder. He has become much more polite during feeds, perhaps only screaming once if I take too long with the next piece of fish. He gets fed in the concrete ‘pool’ at the back of the enclosure whereas Bel gets fed near the front gate in a tub. He will kamikaze himself off the low wall, splat on the concrete and then dash for the fish. He is very lazy when it comes to finding pieces, if it is 3inches thataway he gives up on it and comes back screaming as if to say ‘I couldn’t find it, you didn’t throw any did you?!’. However over the last few days he has become a little terrorist when the food is done. The best way to tell the kids the food is all gone is to show both open, empty hands. Oh they’ll still scream, loud and long but eventually they get the message. Philip however has taken rather a liking to toes…and biting said toes. We all wear thongs here (havaianas – their rubber withstands the rocks much better than any others) because it is too hot to wear anything else. This puts our poor toes at risk, we have started giving him a wack on the nose and a loud NO! each time he bites to try and deter him…time will tell.


Terrorist!

Now the kids get fed four times a day: 830am, 1130am – this is when it’s their turn at the river (except we take them to a different landing that is more like a little lagoon so they cannot swim off too far and don’t have to worry about current), 230pm and 530pm. Diane, Dr Lucy and Stefi were all worried that Bel was not getting enough food or growing enough so the 4th feeding session was introduced only a day or two after I arrived. Now it becomes easier to see how these days disappear doesn’t it!
Typical otter food:


I shall endeavor to get a pic of a whole piranha next time ;)
There is a huge, and I mean Huge Piranha head out near the otter house that got left behind, it is now pretty much the dried out skull with a bit of skin on it. I will post a photo. Its teeth are massive, shaped like some sharks with two small peaks on either side of a large peak. Awesome.

Piranha, especially the Red-Bellied kind are their favourite.

Ok so this post is huge enough I shall make another to introduce the main people here and the actual place itself.

Arriving in a new country

I'll make a few posts to catch up.

So, the travelling...26th Jan - 29th jan
To start off with meeting Gareth and Sonal at international airport Syd for a few hours chat and lunch was awesome :)



courtesy of Gareth at the lunch table haha

Next was flying to San Fran with United Air (who seem to be in the dark ages) which is roughly 14hrs. The food was crapola and so was the entertainment (no individual screens) but thankfully the rear of the plane was mostly empty so I moved one row in front where I had 3 seats to myself so was able to curl up and sleep most of the flying away. I woke up for dinner...which sucked big time



Then I woke up for the last time with maybe 1.5hrs to go and was given my vegetarian breakfast...which was suss bakedbeans, tomato and spinach...well I think it was...Thought I should at least have a bit so managed to stomach 3 bites before it was too much. It didnt take long for me to feel seedy, but I refused to give in and sat there concentrating for the next hour while we descended and landed. Unfortunately I lost the battle just as I was leaving the plane. I have been sick when flying a few too many times in earlier years so I know all the warning signs. I made it the bathroom just down the hall...just...with a full mouth....what fun.

Immigration and customs etc at San Fran was much nicer and friendlier than LAX.
Flying over the US to New York took about 6hrs and was pretty uneventful, the food was still tres terrible so I avoided it. Here I had to change terminals.

Travel Hint #2: Never think you cant ask for directions. Especially when you are travelling in an airport where there are often time constraints and what not.

I just kept asking where to go each time I lost track of the previous directions until I made it to the airtrain which was cool and very fast. Made it super easy to change terminals. I had to walk outside briefly to get to the airtrain...it was rather cold outside! But nice and refreshing after not feeling too well.



By the time I got to my terminal and checked in it was about 1030pm so not much was open for food but I got what I could seeing as I hadnt eaten properly since Syd! At this stage I was relieved because I knew that most of the journey was over and I was nearly there.

Carribean Air was pretty good, another non event where I attempted to sleep most of it away. I got 3 seats to myself again hoorah, thanks universe. I realised when I glimpsed my first sight of Trinidads coast that this was the first new country I have seen in what I think is about 12years - since I first went to the US and Canada...

Upon reaching Georgetown, the capital of Guyana I find out that my backpack has not arrived with me...oh joy of joys.

This was my first view upon exiting the aircraft...beautiful little set up.



Made arrangements with the baggage claim dude and then went to find my preorganised driver Sean. He was a lovely Gtown guy - they have the coolest accent ever in Gtown - like jamaican but not, its the accent of the carribean and is so awesome. Although sometimes its so thick I often had to ask again what they were saying. I figured it was even though because he had to do that with me too. Especially when I used our colloquealisms such as 'toast' (warm) or 'cruisey' (was referring to the jamaican music on the radio).

The Herdmanston Lodge in town was great, just what I needed after at least 38hrs of travel.



The ladies were absolutely beautiful and went out of their way to make me feel welcome and help me hunt down my bag etc. For two nights in a row I missed dinner, bad I know especially going by the lack of food for the last 2 days, because I was so tired Id nap in the afternoon and then sleep through until 7pm when I couldnt be bothered going out in the dark to get a cab to find somewhere for dinner. My thursday flight to Karanambu was cancelled because I didnt have my bag. It ended up arriving on thursday afternoon and I flew to Karanambu Ranch (KR) on saturday.

Please comment to your hearts desire, ask questions, share stories, whatever you like :)